Chapter 374: After the Storm

The Tidebreaker snarled and lunged.

Holly finally screamed and bolted.

Sophia met the beast head-on.

Joren hit it from behind.

Bianca and Miles arrived a heartbeat later.

Uther’s arrow struck true.

Sophia drove her blade into the weak point as the others forced it down.

It collapsed with a final violent thrash. Immediately they were done, they moved to the next ones with the same strategy in place.

Cries of battle echoed.

Then... silence.

Three more massive bodies lay still in the snow.

Seven Tidebreakers total.

Breathing hard, shaking, covered in blood and foul-smelling paste, the team regrouped slowly.

No one spoke.

Finally, Joren let out a breathless laugh. "We... actually did it."

Sophia didn’t smile.

"I’m hoping we don’t have to face any more of them again," Miles said, breathing heavily.

"Me too," Uther said with a nod.

Sophia turned to them, breathing heavily. She lay on the floor, eyes closed.

"You okay?" Joren asked her.

She nodded, then shook her head. "I just..."

It was only then that Joren noticed her hands were shaking.

"Are you cold?" he asked her.

She huffed a laugh that sounded more like an exhale. "No, I’m relieved that we were able to defeat the Tidebreakers, but I was scared that we would not be able to. And I..." She swallowed. "I think I need a rest."

The others nodded.

"Looking at you now," Uther said, "you were more scared than the rest of us, weren’t you?" he asked her.

"Yeah, ’cause I’m not even shaking that much," Bianca added.

Sophia nodded. "Of course I was scared. But I’m okay now," she told them.

Joren passed her a wineskin. "It’s water, I think you need it."

She thanked him and downed the water in one go.

"We need to gather the bodies, I think, show them to Ethan?" Miles asked.

The others nodded. Sophia tried to stand, but they shook their heads, telling her to just lie down.

"Dren said your stamina was shit," Joren told her, and Sophia gave him a look, but it didn’t seem like what she would usually give him if she wasn’t feeling exhausted.

"It was his words, not mine. Don’t look at me like that," Joren told her with hands raised in surrender. "Anyways, I’m just saying that you should try to recover while the rest of us move the bodies. Just rest. The test is only just beginning after all."

"True. And besides, it’s because of you we even finished this early. I think you deserve the rest," Miles told her with a smile.

Bianca and Uther nodded.

Joren, Bianca, Miles, and Uther turned then, moving to pick up the Tidebreaker bodies.

"Holly?" Uther called out.

She blinked in shock. "Me too? But I’m tired. My hands are shaking too."

"I wonder why," Bianca said dryly. She never thought Holly was this insufferable, but she was, and it was annoying.

"Perhaps it’s because she did absolutely nothing," Miles said.

"I was bait," Holly screeched out. "And I killed one beast too."

"You helped kill one, and don’t even pretend like you really helped us. Better come work with us—at least do something to help your marks during this test," Miles said to her with barely contained irritation.

"Why are you guys giving Sophia special treatment?" Holly asked. "When I did the same thing?"

"And why do you expect to get the same treatment when you didn’t even do the bare minimum?" Bianca asked her.

"I really don’t have the energy to stand here and argue with you. Better bring yourself over here and get to working with us. If you want to be treated like Sophia, maybe for one, don’t be so fucking annoying," Uther told her.

Holly’s cheeks reddened at his words. "Don’t..."

Miles rolled his eyes. Joren was trying and failing to hide his laughter, but then they straightened immediately when they noticed someone was approaching them.

"Why are you guys behaving like I’m a Tidebreaker out to get you guys?" Ethan asked with a laugh as he and Genevieve entered the clearing.

He placed Genevieve’s box on the floor and then walked up to the Tidebreaker body. He gave them all a look.

"There are more bodies. You guys will need to bring them all here," he told them.

"We were working on that," Uther told him.

Ethan nodded, then turned to Sophia, who was still breathing heavily.

Genevieve moved to her and checked her pulse and eyesight, then moved to the box and opened it, bringing out some herbs from inside.

"Open your mouth," she instructed Sophia, who did so.

Joren was anxious from seeing Genevieve give Sophia the herbs.

"Is everything alright?" he asked her.

Genevieve nodded. "She’s just used a lot of her strength. What I’m giving her will help her recover it faster and will calm her heart rate down too. There’s no need to alarm yourself."

Joren let out a sigh of relief.

"Joren?" Sophia called out softly.

"Yes?" he asked her.

"I left my daggers out there, so..."

Joren nodded. "I’ll retrieve them for you," he told her.

She nodded, then closed her eyes again, willing her pounding heart rate to settle down.

Ethan gave Holly a firm look. "Your marks aren’t really looking great, so if I were you, I’d help the others in retrieving the bodies."

Holly gave him a glare, and he stared back at her with a bored look.

"Fine," she growled out, marching ahead of the others.

"Um, Holly?" Joren called out.

"What?" she barked.

"You are going the wrong way," he told her.

"W-well, I knew that," she said to him and then turned.

Bianca snickered, following after her. "No, you did not."

The others moved immediately, grabbing heavy limbs, hauling the massive bodies across the snow toward the point where Sophia and Ethan were.

Sophia’s breathing had started slowing down back to normal.

Genevieve gave Sophia a look. "You are really brave, you know that?" she asked Sophia. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Sophia released a small snort. "Orion prefers using the word stubborn."

"And stubborn is a good asset to have sometimes too. Except in some situations," Ethan said with a laugh.

Joren made sure that he got Sophia’s daggers; they had been a gift to her from Alpha Orion after all, and he wasn’t going to disappoint Sophia by not getting them back to her.

All seven Tidebreaker bodies were now gathered, and Sophia was back to her feet without taking in a breath that felt like it would rip her heart out.

It was now time for the individual tests.